Eve

#32. Eve

The Lizardman heroes were definitely very strong.

Each one handled weapons more freely than their own bodies, and their coordinated combo techniques were excellent too.

But after the long period of closed-door training I'd gone through on the 3rd Floor, my skills were already well above theirs.

I won without much trouble and grabbed the worthless clear reward before entering the 4th Floor.

By then, both my stats and my skill level were already far beyond 4th Floor standards, and in practice none of the monsters that appeared there could match me.

Of course, that didn't mean it all went smoothly. On the 4th Floor, there was something far more fucking annoying than the monsters.

That goddamn sun glaring down at me from the sky.

“Fuck, it's so hot I'm gonna die.”

The 4th Floor’s main theme was a desert. An endless desert where there was no night.

Whether I was lying around at the inn or out hunting, I had to endure the scorching heat all day long.

Even the monsters were all the kind that used fire-attribute attacks.

Their types were just palette-swapped versions of the monsters I'd seen while climbing the tower so far—goblins, kobolds, lizardmen, and the like.

Their patterns weren't all that different from the ones I'd seen before; they just gained the ability to throw and spit fireballs.

Naturally, they didn't help me grow stronger at all, and the more I fought them, the hotter and more annoyed I got.

Besides, I'd already maxed out fire resistance on the 3rd Floor, so there wasn't anything more to gain anyway.

“Isn't there such a thing as heat resistance?”

I complained to myself, stepping on the remains of the field boss I'd just beaten.

That said, I already knew there was no such resistance skill. Fire resistance was probably doing the same job.

The dehydration symptoms the open community strategy guide warned about still showed no sign of appearing.

-drip, drip.

The ice chunks I'd tucked inside my clothes to cool off had melted and started dripping away after only a few seconds.

Because my body had been heated to nearly the temperature of sheet metal.

Even though it was this hot, my body temperature had barely changed, and I'd never once suffered heatstroke.

Which meant the fire-resistance skill was protecting my body from the heat. It just wasn't protecting my mind.

“Should I just move on already?”

Having taken down this field boss, I'd already secured most of what there was to get from the 4th Floor.

There was still a quest to escort a caravan crossing the desert, but the reward was nothing special, so I could probably skip it.

I'd already stripped most of the medium and large treasure chests bare on the first day I came to the 4th Floor, so all that remained were the small ones with gold or enhancement materials.

Even if I cleaned up the rest of the quests and monsters, I didn't expect to grow any stronger than this.

“Let's move on.”

It was already the fourth day since I entered the 4th Floor, and after subduing the entire field, I headed straight for the boss.

**

The boss monster of the 4th Floor was a fire-breathing lizard beast called a salamander.

After seeing lizardmen walking on two legs all the time, seeing a lizard that crawled around on all fours felt incredibly out of place.

The salamander's main patterns were flamethrower blasts, fireball throws, and biting attacks with its burning teeth.

For someone like me who'd already raised fire resistance very high, it was at the level where I could tank it without much trouble.

And when it entered phase two, it wrapped its whole body in flames and charged at me, but the attack pattern was so simple that I just dodged everything.

It was probably a boss that regular 4th Floor challengers would have a hard time with, but its matchup against me was terrible.

[Congratulations. You were the first to clear the Trial Tower 4th Floor.]

The first-clear reward was [Salamander's Soul Stone], an item that could imbue equipment with the fire attribute.

Attribute imbuement sounded impressive, but the amount of extra attribute damage it added was nothing special.

And according to what I found by searching the community, once you reached the upper floors, you could easily get better imbuement items than this.

So I just used it on some junk item I had lying around and called it a day.

The maximum contribution reward was none other than [Fire Resistance], the same skill I already had.

I wondered what I was supposed to do with a skill I already had, but it merged with my original resistance and leveled up by one.

The final blow reward was a staff called [Salamander's Eye], a mage item that would just sit and rot in my inventory.

At first I thought I might sell it to another challenger during the Festival period, but apparently trading isn't allowed on the event map.

The only things you can trade on that map are event-related currency and items, apparently.

There were posts on the community saying you could trade indirectly using all sorts of loopholes and tricks.

But after reading the details, I found that method was impossible for a solo player like me too.

“Wonder if I'll ever have a use for it.”

**

The soul stone and staff I got on the 4th Floor came in handy on the 5th Floor.

The 5th Floor’s main theme was a snowy plain, the exact opposite of the 4th Floor, and in that cold mountain region, those two items were a huge help.

For starting fires.

Though I couldn't equip it because of the restrictions, if I struck the red ornament on the tip of the staff hard enough, sparks would fly.

If I prepared tinder from anything that would burn and banged on it with the staff a few times, I could start a campfire in no time.

And a fire-attribute dagger was also perfect as a hand warmer.

The monsters that appeared on the 5th Floor had a little more thought put into them than the ones on the 4th Floor.

Of course, most of them were still recycled monsters with only the cold attribute added, but there were new ones mixed in here and there.

Things like snowy rabbit beasts that used powerful ice attacks, or snowy trolls that looked like white orangutans.

Especially the snowy trolls—they were monsters I absolutely adored.

Trolls were almost structurally the same as humans, except a bit bigger, and they were monsters with especially outstanding regeneration.

Thanks to that trait, they were perfect as practice dummies for barehanded techniques.

Seriously, even after pummeling one with my fists for 30 minutes, it still wouldn't die.

Oh, of course, after a while it did start wailing like it was begging me to kill it.

Anyway, thanks to that, I was able to raise my hand-to-hand combat skill by two levels in a week, and my grappling skills improved a lot too.

But even so, they were still beasts in the end, so there were definite limits to the techniques I could practice.

Aside from trolls, the other monsters were all pretty much the same, and just like on the 4th Floor, I'd already picked up everything worth getting early on.

The quests and hidden elements in this area were mostly for mages, so there wasn't much else for me to dig into.

“Let's move on.”

I subjugated the snowy plain in just two weeks and set off to take on the boss again.

**

The 5th Floor's boss was a yeti that looked like a giant version of the snowy troll.

That said, it wasn't really doing exactly the same things as the trolls, and you could see quite a bit of intelligence in it.

Its patterns were swinging an ice club, firing magical icicles, and pounding the ground with its fists in a fit of rage.

The ice-club attack, combined with the yeti's absurdly huge frame, had a tremendous reach, but its trajectory was way too obvious.

The icicle shots were quite powerful, but their speed was similar to the Lizardmen's arrows, so I could just dodge them.

I only figured out what the pattern of pounding the ground with its fists like a lunatic actually was after beating the boss and looking it up in the community.

“Ah, so that was a paralysis-inducing AoE.”

I had such high paralysis resistance that I just shrugged it off, but according to the challengers on the community, it was actually one of the dangerous patterns.

Since every attack had a wide area and hit hard, getting paralyzed even for a moment could really screw you over.

The orthodox strategy was for ranged dealers to stay outside the attack range, while a small elite tank line kept the yeti's aggro completely locked down.

Even if you got paralyzed and ended up taking a hit, they said it was important to set up tanks who could withstand at least one blow.

I said fuck that and rushed in to beat it to death in close combat, but that's just how solo play goes.

The 5th Floor clear rewards were [Yeti's Ice Club], classified as a blunt weapon, and [Yeti Fur Cloak].

The club was a ridiculously huge blunt weapon with high attack power, much like the Goblin Lord's axe.

The fur cloak was a unique item with an option that increased cold resistance.

That was a pretty handy option, but if I stacked elemental resistance through gear, it might interfere with leveling my resistance skill.

So I just equipped it together with the club, took the achievement reward, and stuffed it into my inventory.

[Activate the floor transfer gate?]

“Yes.”

And just like that, after clearing the 4th and 5th Floors in less than a month, I entered the 6th Floor.

**

With a slight floating sensation, my vision was engulfed in light, and in the next moment another world appeared.

The entrance area of the 6th Floor was clearly different from the regions I'd passed through so far.

“It's really indoors.”

Just like I'd already stepped into a labyrinth zone, I could see a tightly sealed passage with no light reaching it.

According to what was known on the open community, the entire 6th Floor region was a traditional-style labyrinth.

Minotaurs, skeletons, zombies, slimes. They'd said all sorts of monsters would appear.

- Welcome to the Trial Tower open community.

I opened the community again for the first time in a while to look for more detailed information. Then a new piece of news immediately caught my eye.

[Breaking News) 4th Festival date confirmed]

A massive event where Trial Tower challengers gather, the Festival—one month away.